Breath of Another World (BOTW Link x Reader)

Up Death Mountain

(Art by @Kikiospirit)

"How are you ahead?!"

I turned back to Link after he yelled to me, my eyebrow raising in slight amusement as I watched him drag himself up the steep path. He was already a sweaty and heaving mess, which was a surprise since he could climb mountains with ease... I gotta tell you, though, seeing as I was more resistant to something compared to the hero - it did boost my confidence a slight bit.

"Back in my world, I trekked a mountain trail with a few buddies on a regular basis - it was sorta our thing, so that might play some part." I stated with a shrug, slowing my pace to give Link a chance to catch up. Sighing, I placed my hands behind my head and stared up at the rest of the mountain "I might not be saying that for long, though... I can already feel temperatures rising."

"I'm not the only one, then." Link wiped some sweat from his forehead, pointing to his pouch of elixirs after "When do you think we'll need these?"

"I don't know... wait," I dropped my arms down as soon as an idea popped up "That stable hand said equipment made of wood burns easily in the heat, right? If we keep something wooden on us, and it starts to burn, we'll know when the elixirs are needed."

"That's... not a bad idea." Link hummed out, impressed "Got anything like that on you?"

"Yeah, my - well, your bow."

"That'll work." He nodded, seemingly ignoring the fact I still had his bow, "We're going to want to savour these as much as possible, we don't know when we'll find better heat protection."

"Or whether we'll even get to Goron city with the time they'll give us," I held my hand over my eyes as I stared up at the rocky winding path, shielding them from the late morning sunlight "It looks like we'll at least still be on the road until sunset."

"Are you kidding me?!" Link yelled out, not on board with that idea, only to turn away from me and begin to walk down the path instead "Nope, I resign as hero!"

I rolled my eyes, and pulled the boy back by the collar of his tunic "Oh no you don't. If I'm doing this, so are you."

Link groaned, walking backwards as I pulled him along. Glancing back at him, my face fell into a deadpan at his childish behaviour - which I somehow learned to expect with Link. Sometimes he was the strong, hardened-eyed knight that didn't let fear define him... and at other times he was simply a boy that complained and messed around, despite the crushing responsibility hanging over his head.

"Link," I spoke up "We both know I wouldn't actually be able to drag you like this, so stop messing around."

"Fine..." My shoulder jolted back when Link halted his feet, only to remove my hand from his tunic and return to my side. Heh. He was pouting, how cute. We were walking for a little bit, enjoying the silence, but Link turned his head when he felt my gaze linger and raised an eyebrow "What is it?"

My face heated up, and my gaze fell forward "Nothing! I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at the scenery your big head's blocking, obviously!!!"

"...Right."

"What, are you calling me a liar?"

Link's mouth opened for him to retort, but then he paused as if thinking back on something. After a moment, his lips curled up into a small smirk as he leaned towards me slightly.

Oh no.

"I'm not calling you a truther~,"

"Ya know what Limp noodle!!"

He laughed out loud "You walked right into that one! Also your bow's one fire."

"I didn't walk into shi— wait what?" Frowning, I slowly turned my head towards where he was pointing, only to see smoke trailing up from my back. My eyes shot wide open in shock "Oh Quiznak!!!"